I haven’t posted
in a while, but since the school year
just finished I thought it would be a good idea to write a reflection on what I
have learned teaching fifteen classes a week, forty kids a class, with no
resources.
 |
| Teaching children things. Mainly the correct technique for hitting pinatas. |
1. Kids are super embarrassed.
Getting kids to do any kind of activity, such as skits, that make english fun will require an abnormal level of enthusiasm and an insane amount of optimism.
2. Give up any semblance of dignity or pride.
You cant
have any when you are trying to get 40 kids who have no interest involved in
learning the English alphabet. The sillier you act, the more they enjoy it.
Whatever, I don’t care if forty 12 year olds are laughing at my dancing skills. Or my accent.
3. prepare to be laughed at.
See above. They love it when you drop things, when your accent sucks, and when your spanish is ridiculous. For instance I called "el clima" "la clima" by mistake, causing forty sixth graders to laugh their heads off for five minutes until the teacher took pity on me and told me about my mistake. And when it is my fifth class of the day and instead of speaking intelligible Spanish I resort to groaning and saying "arrgubluaabllubss" I get big laughs.
4. clear early on that tests and homework will actually count.
Or don't care about homework. This is probably a better strategy because who wants to grade that? Not me. Tests are great, because they can be used instead of a lesson plan... but then you have to grade them. Ugh.
5. never ever raise your voice, because five classes in which you shout the entire time means you will have no voice.
Unless its raining and the leaking tin roof makes noises equivalent to a battlefield, in which case give up on class and settle for keeping the kids from physical violence (a challenge in itself).
6. make english fun! do half the new vocab you think you should, and
make the rest games.
What? you don't think English is fun? Well it is now. Even if I have to scare the concept into you.
7. don’t tell them how old you are.
Because they are only a year younger (education sucks here.. count your blessings Americans, at least you were twelve in sixth grade) and if you tell them how old you are it will only make them feel as if it is even more socially acceptable to stand super close to you and hit on you in class. Yuck.
8. have emergency games up your
sleeve.
Or a song. Or translate all their names into English for them, that's what they really want to do anyway.
9. don’t use words like adjective or superlative, because chances are no
one knows what that means.
Even I had to look up superlative, I don't know why I though they would know what it meant.
10. never bring valuables with you.
Ive never had anything stolen (knock on wood) but everyone I know has. Poverty is a major issue, and while I feel bad, I'm not earning any money either.
11. keep them guessing. be supernice… up to a point.
Some people call this setting boundaries, I call it acting crazy.
12. When they ask you what a word means in english ( ie onion, or
chinese, or monkey) don’t tell them.
All they want to do is point laughing at some poor classmate and call them that in English. Probably should have realized this when they asked what cabeza de tomate meant in English.
13. be crazy super enthusiastic! I think I already went over this.
14. make friends with the real teacher.
They might feel bad for you be nice and stay for the class, which means you get a 20% better behaved class, and possibly some coffee afterwards.
15. be super, super creative.
You kind of have to be, when there are forty kids and all you have to entertain them teach with is a white board and marker. No one likes copying vocab, so the more you get away from this and into interactive games and exercises the more both they and you will enjoy the class. The internet is great resource.
16. enjoy yourself.
If you're not having fun, they're not having fun, and fun can turn into actually enjoying learning a new language. Which can turn into enjoying learning, and maybe getting past sixth grade! Lets graduate sixth grade people.
